Kansas vs Colorado

SSP&A serves as a technical assistant to the State of Kansas in a legal dispute involving the availability of waters from the Arkansas River. The State of Kansas claimed that the State of Colorado was pumping extensive groundwater from alluvial aquifers in Colorado to an extent that it reduced stream flow in violation of the Arkansas River Compact. Other claims involved Colorado’s operation of surface reservoirs and their impact on stateline streamflows.

SSP&A has been involved in this project since 1985. Work involved analysis of streamflow data to assess depletions to streamflows in the Arkansas River, assisting in the development and application of a hydrologic-institutional model (surface-water and groundwater) to evaluate impacts of pumping and other activities on streamflows, evaluation of Colorado’s plans to replace depletions caused by pumping, and assisting in the determination of damages caused by depletions to streamflows by analyzing impacts of depletions on regional groundwater levels. Mr. Steve Larson, Executive Vice President of SSP&A, testified on behalf of the State of Kansas before a Special Master of the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Kansas.